


On the Road to San Francisco

by LapisAlba



Series: Star Trek Alternate Universes [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Road Trip, Chekov and Sulu are Shady and it's Great, Crew as Family, Mild Swearing, Possible Underage Drinking, feel good ending, light fluff, road trip au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25210825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LapisAlba/pseuds/LapisAlba
Summary: Impulsiveness has always been Jim's weakness, so when he leaves everything he knows behind on a whim he knows no one will be shocked. In the front seat of a near stranger's van, he watches the landscape fly past and wonders, just for a moment, if driving thousands of miles to see a shuttle launch with no preparation and no backup plan is really a smart idea. But then, he's never been one for regrets and maybe this time, things will be okay.Yes, this is road trip AU. I simply couldn't resist.
Relationships: James T. Kirk & Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James T. Kirk & Spock, Pavel Chekov & Hikaru Sulu, Scotty and Everyone, Spock & Nyota Uhura
Series: Star Trek Alternate Universes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1824973
Comments: 8
Kudos: 20





	On the Road to San Francisco

**Author's Note:**

> Due to the fact that I don't live in America, all of my information came from the internet, so if any of it is wrong I'm afraid you'll just have to forgive me.  
> It is beta-read but any remaining mistakes are my own. 
> 
> Please enjoy and if you have feedback I'd love to hear it.

Jim meets McCoy on a warm evening in a bar in Riverside, Iowa. At the time, the doctor is three sheets to the wind and rambling about the savagery of open-heart surgery, but he seems friendly enough in his own gruff way, so Jim buys him a drink. He knows what it is like to be wasted and alone in a place that clearly isn’t what is considered homely. After another few shots of Jack and a long muddling conversation about divorce, Jim decides that the doctor, who introduces himself as McCoy, should totally sleep on his couch. Maybe it was the pleasant buzz of too many drinks talking, but bad decisions are Jim's forte and he’s hoping that tonight he hasn’t written his coda a decade or few to early.

The true ramifications of his drunken choices hit him in the morning when the grumpy southerner stands over his bed with a little white pill, a glass of water and a gruff question about whether they used protection, and for a moment the echoes of panting reach his mind without context before the memory of them struggling up the steps to the porch crash over him in a wave of what he thinks is relief.

Needless to say, the first few hours after that are awkward.

They argue a bit about what really happened that night while they head back to the bar to retrieve McCoy's van and then the doctor explains why he is in Iowa rather than his home state of Georgia. This leads to another drunken night and Jim waking up on the hard floor next to his bed while the doctor pours a glass of water over his head and demands to know where his coffee is hidden.

Jim finds that for all the doctor’s grouchy attitude, his inability to cope in the morning without coffee and his frightening tendency to go into unnecessarily gruesome detail about medical procedures, he actually enjoys the man’s company. While he did think that the man would leave after their impromptu two-day bender, he is relieved when he doesn’t. It’s been a long time since he has had a friend. 

And so, for two weeks they camp out in Jim’s house, eating takeaway and the reluctant salad when McCoy remembers he’s sworn to save lives and not help the reaper along by supporting heart attacks.

Then Jim sees an article in the news that catches his attention. One about the newest space launch happening in San Francisco in a few months’ time and for a brilliant moment Jim sees himself more clearly than ever before, standing in the burning sun of California watching the rocket as it becomes one of the only truly free objects in the universe. He drifts for a while in the thoughts of the vastness of space and the feeling of belonging that always comes from watching the stars. When he returns to his kitchen, he finds his mouth dry and his eyes burning, he looks around and he knows with all his heart what he has to do.

Bones, the nickname acquired by the doctor after a particularly disconcerting story about a motorbike injury that still makes Jim’s stomach clench, is reluctant to even let Jim near his van. Let alone drag him to San Francisco to watch some poor sods condemn themselves to a slow and painful death in the heartless void of space – his words not Jim’s. But, after some cajoling and begging that Jim will never admit to, the doctor agrees. They empty the contents of the doctors broken home into Jim’s barn and Jim pretends not to see Bones shed a tear for the life that he had tried so hard to save.

It takes a depressingly short amount of time for Jim to get bored. They’ve only been driving for a few hours when he insists they stop near the state boarder of Nebraska. He spotted a sign for the zoo only a few miles back and he hounds Bones into pulling in. When they get there the doctor wanders off to get coffee, shouting to meet back in an hour Jim bounds off to see the lions. After a whistle stop tour of the big cats, which had produced only a modicum of the entertainment value Jim has imagined they would, he seeks shade in the aquarium.

It is dark and cool and the drifting light from the tanks create a calm atmosphere, quite different to the vibrance of the outside world. As he walks, Jim thinks about the absurdity of his adventure. Leaving his home behind in the car of a near stranger to go and see a shuttle launch thousands of miles away on a whim? Probably one of his more outrageous ideas but also, he hoped, one of his best.

“If you would excuse me,” a tall, pale man with dark eyes and a beanie hat was pointing to the tank that Jim was lingering in front of. The tank contained clown fish and Jim idly wondered if, given the popularity of Nemo, they really counted as exotic fish anymore.

He moved out the way and let the pale man through.

“Fascinating,” the man mutters and Jim wonders if they were seeing the same fish, maybe the guy was colour blind?

“Really?” He asks, “I mean they’re just Clown fish,” he adds when the man turns his steely eyes on him. There was a green hue to the man’s skin and Jim ponders if it was the odd reflection from the tanks.

The man’s eyes narrow minutely, and it emphasises his stooped eyebrows. “Clown fish?” the man inquires with a smooth, unplaceable accent.

“Uh,” Jim replies suddenly unsure, he thinks about just leaving but the man is still staring so he continues. “Yeah, they’re painted in bright colours like clowns.” He turns his head and looks around the empty aquarium in the hope an attendant would save him.

“That is illogical, clowns are human construction, these fish are thousands of years in evolutionary development, they are not correlated,” the man reels off.

It takes a moment for the words to properly sink in, but when they do Jim smiles. The guy is a bit weird but something about his naivety is cute, so he introduces himself and half an hour after his arranged meeting time he is back at the van, Spock in tow. The first thing Bones says when he sees the man is ‘no’ but Jim considers this ‘no’ to actually mean ‘yes’ given that Bones had said ‘no’ to many things previous and then had, inevitably and reluctantly, allowed the things to happen anyway.

After a long aggressive stare, in which Jim wondered if Bones could actually make murder look like an accident, he nods and opens the back door.

“Fine, but if he is a serial killer and we die, I thoroughly blame you.”

Spock, it turns out is not a serial killer.

Oh no.

Spock is a god damn _alien_.

At first Jim laughs until his cheeks hurt and there’s tears running down his face because, of course Spock is an alien, isn’t it obvious? Bones thinks he’s finally cracked and considering the guy’s only known him a few weeks it should be a more concerning fact but in that moment Jim's too worried about actually splitting his sides than how many people think he’s sane. Then, Spock takes off his hat to reveal very pointy, very alien ears and Jim stops laughing and starts hyperventilating. This sets the doctor off on a rant about how some surprises aren’t nice and definitely shouldn’t be done when the only attending doctor for miles is driving.

Once Jim stops dying and Spock has put his ears safely away behind his beanie, which he confesses to liberating off a distasteful gentleman in the zoo, Bones takes the opportunity to punch a metaphorical hole in the roof. He rants and raves and spits and eventually, after much mediation between him and Spock, calms to a gentle simmer of southern temper.

They drive in silence for a while afterwards and occasionally, Spock asks monotone questions about the landscape and Jim tries to answer with what little knowledge he has about Nebraska. Eventually, Bones joins in and Jim plucks up the courage to ask what kind of alien Spock is and why he’s on Earth.

The conversation goes something like:

“Wait so, your race, the Vulcan’s, are researching us?” Jim asks incredulously.

Spock nods solemnly, “Indeed.”

“Why?”

There’s a pause before Spock says, “We find you…fascinating.”

This time Jim nods, “Right.”

“We are trying to ascertain whether you as a species are ready for First Contact, we are monitoring all localised species for signs of sophisticated development,” Spock elaborates.

“So, there are other species nearby, other aliens?” Jim asks uncertainly.

“Yes, we have estimated around 5 other species exist within the immediate interstellar special range.”

“Oh my god.”

Jim will not admit to another freak out, but Bones happily declares that he sufficiently lost his shit enough to need a twenty-minute roadside stop and a paper bag.

For the next week they tour Nebraska, stopping at many tourist traps and camping out in motels because Bones refuses to sleep in the van no matter how comfy Jim claims the seats are.

Somewhere along the way Jim acquires a camera, which he uses to take candid photos of the doctor and Spock. Many of the pictures of Spock involve Jim with his arm slung round him and Spock lifting a confused eyebrow right up to his bowl cut. The ones with Bones are significantly more casual, ones of him awkwardly eating sub sandwiches and frowning at the Vulcan. Jim even manages to capture the exact moment the doctor steps in a cowpat and the subsequent frown that clouds his face which still sends Jim into hysterics thinking about it. Some of the best photo’s; however, are not taken by him or Bones, the best ones are by Spock. The Vulcan uses his impeccable logic strings to capture what he deems to be, logically, the most important moments. While it takes him a few goes to fully understand what he refers to as the ‘primitive imaging device’ he masters the art far quicker than Jim thinks reasonable. For a being saturated in logic, his photos capture moments of beautiful emotion and Jim treasures every photo the Vulcan takes.

Eventually, they make it to the Colorado state boarder and Jim cheers as they pass the sign welcoming them to the home of Rocky Mountain National Park. They stop for lunch in a small town named Fort Morgan. Jim doesn’t see a fort but then he’s been told many times that things like this are historical rather than literal. It takes a while to explain that to Spock.

They stop at a quaint deli which sells mouth watering homemade sandwiches and it is there they meet Scotty. The aptly named Scotsman is lamenting over his lack of transport and happily informs them that he’s been blacklisted from most, if not all, rental companies due to his improvements. Apparently, he says in a thick Scottish accent, rental companies don’t want or need hover cars. It is a mighty shame, he laments, because they work beautifully.

Jim stares and takes a moment to consider just how cool hover cars are before offering to give the man a lift. Bones, of course is _ecstatic_ at the idea of another unknown passenger and Spock just tilts his head in a way that strongly remind Jim of a cat. The Scotsman, who Jim finds out is a huge fan of sandwiches, insists that he only needs a lift to somewhere he can get a bus to Las Vegas, but Jim persuades him to let them take him to at least Provo, Utah where he can hop on a coach with decent AC.

Bones grumbles about not being a taxi driver but relents when Scotty tells him he’d be happy to drive some of the journey and upgrade their engine to get rid of the mysterious and possibly vengeful rattling they picked up midway through Nebraska.

So, they start off again, and at the insistence of Jim head towards the Rocky Mountain National Park. They stop off in Denver for a few days to see what it was about, and Jim's photo collection grows, now also featuring an enthusiastic Scotty as well. Spock spends the break in the city museums taking in vast, eye-bleeding amounts of state history that make Jim want to weep with boredom, while the doctor and the Scotsman indulge in some of the finer spirits available in the affordable bars.

When they actually make it to the national park, it is approaching sunrise and Scotty, who has been driving all night, tells them he will catch up to them, but he wants a kip in the van first.

The sun slowly lights up the beautiful forest and Spock seems mesmerised as he walks along the trodden path. Jim can see his small concentrated frown as he takes in the vibrant colours of the trees and vast valleyed landscape that the mountains provided. They reach a lake and Jim cannot resist jumping in, he tunes out the doctor’s lecture of parasites and micro-bacteria as he shoves his shirt into the man hand, in favour of enjoying the fresh, crystal clear, microbe filled water as it bubbles up around him.

It is refreshing and cold and its sharp stinging realness brings Jim back, for a moment, to his journey. His heart still sings for the opportunity to see the shuttle break free of gravity and escape the grabbing hand Earth’s atmosphere but the song is quieter now, like a radio on in the background rather than a beating drum next to his ear. He wonders if it has anything to do with Bones, Spock and Scotty. The three of them were exciting in a way Jim’s life had never been and for the first time in his life Jim felt the nagging feeling of loneliness in the back of his mind ease.

When his lungs start to burn, he pushes up to the surface gasping slightly at the bite in the air around him. The doctor looks mildly jealous and mildly pissed off but hands him his shirt back dutifully.

There is a noise of surprise and they both turn to see Spock lifting his foot from the lake with a look of distaste plastered on his face. His boot is dripping and his eyes narrow at the unpleasant wet sock feeling. He is balancing on a rock at the edge of the water like a disgruntled panther and the overall image is enough to make Jim chuckle. With a click of his camera he immortalises the moment before Spock can move.

When Spock returns from the edge there is a faint green tinge to his face and Jim wonders if he is actually blushing, he goes to ask but then changes his mind when the Vulcan lifts an unimpressed eyebrow in his direction.

Due to various other ventures and side-tracking events, it is midday by the time they make it back to the car park and Jim pauses as his brain takes a hot second to catch up with his eyes. In front of him is the van, previously pristine and white with small metal writing that read _Enterprise_ on the back, now muddy and with added suspension. Scotty is standing by the open hood of the van cleaning a metal object that looks like it could actually be very important to making the vehicle go. It doesn’t take the doctor long to work his angry magic in getting the mechanic to clean the mud – where did it even come from it hadn’t rained in days? – off the van.

When they leave, engine purring in a way even Bones is impressed with, it is with a small forlornness. The beauty of the area isn’t theirs to keep, they can’t take it with them, but for a short few hours it had been theirs to treasure.

They take the scenic route to Utah, stopping only when they want and enjoying the radical feeling of freedom that comes with the knowledge that no one knows where they are. There’s a small kafuffle when Scotty sees Spock's ear’s, but it’s followed by the most exuberant garbling of verbal diarrhoea Jim's ever heard so he thinks its probably fine. As far as discovering alien life exists the Scotsman takes it like an absolute champ but it’s only when Spock says he is not authorised to inform them of technical advancements that Scotty goes very silent and Jim has to turn around to confirm he’s even still in the back seat. The frown the Scotsman owns is so near to the doctor’s level of disappointed frowning proficiency that Jim quickly faces the front again and cranks up the radio to dispel the awkwardness.

Despite this they arrive in Provo still friends. They hang around the city for a few days, site seeing and generally causing a small amount of chaos wherever they go. Jim thinks that he is missing some memories from the four days but he’s sure it was fun and even Spock seems to have enjoyed it so that must count for something, right? Eventually, they have to slow down and as the van pulls up in front of the bus station that will take Scotty to Las Vegas the nagging sound in Jim's brain returns. He tires to ignore the growing sense of loss the builds at the thought of them parting ways. So, when Scotty awkwardly pauses and starts to stutter through the reasons he _shouldn’t_ leave, Jim is elated. 

They carry on their journey as a quartet with a new spring in their steps. With the shuttle launch still a good few weeks away they extend their tour of Utah, heading north into mountainous looking terrain.

They pile out of the van in a remote town with barely any phone signal and a single convenience store on the high street. It is while emptying the rubbish out of the back of the car that Jim and Scotty meet Uhura (no first name given). She is tall, poise and ready to kick ass at the drop of a hat. She is also growling down a payphone with considerable force and Jim thinks the person on the other end would do well to obey. He smiles charmingly at her and is met with a suspicious gaze which shuts down his look faster than a bullet train.

It is Scotty that gets them talking and they find out that her car died as she entered the town and no rental company will send a replacement this far out. Scotty is enthralled by chivalrous indignation and immediately offers her a ride to the nearest town much to Jim's amusement. At first she declines but is persuaded to join them for a sandwich-based lunch – Scotty's treat.

When they bring her back to the van she immediately engages in a complex discussion on cultural differences with Spock, who she, to Jim's amazement, seems to just know is not entirely as he seems. It is only midway through the conversation when words such as “contextual sifting” and “semantic primes” are being thrown about like they belong in casual dialogue, that Jim realises he’s only the smartest person in the van when he’s sitting in it alone.

Finally, after some more persuasion it is agreed that they will drop Uhura off at the nearest big town to go and terrify a rental company into giving her another car. However, as Jim drives and the miles fly by they pass town after town and she does not ask them to stop. They don’t ask where she was originally heading and she doesn’t tell them, Jim thinks that maybe even she wasn’t sure.

As he looks in the front mirror to see Bones asleep, head resting on Scotty’s shoulder, Uhura and Spock deep in quiet conversation further back, he once again hears the faint singing from his heart. It’s distant now, still loud enough to feel the yearning for freedom of the stars but no longer desperate and wild. These people he’s met; these strange, eccentric, badass and alien people have created a deep and contented quiet in his mind and he loves it.

He drives aimlessly for a few hours before he realises he has no idea where they are. The countryside is clouded in dusky light and its so foreign compared to the Iowan farmlands he is at home in. He stares guiltily out at the passing landscape and hopes no one has notices as he casually checks for any road signs.

It’s in the coffee shop car park of the nearest town that Jim learns about what Uhura has been studying in university. He had hoped to bring it up in casual conversation but he thinks having her yell at him in a foreign language for a reason he is hard pressed to discern is a more interesting way of revealing a double degree in cryptography and communications.

The couple who own the shop allow them to camp out in the car park on the promise that they’ll buy breakfast there the next day and Jim spends a very uncomfortable night lying on the concrete as punishment for getting them lost.

They drive around Idaho for a while still trying to work out the route or even find a shop that sells a more detailed map, the couple had been helpful in pointing them to Utah but even with Scotty driving and Uhura map reading they couldn’t seem to find the right road.

In the end, they pull into a roadside petrol station that they’ve passed at least five times before to cool off from the building argument. Jim, the doctor and Spock head inside to get directions leaving Uhura and Scotty to duke it out by the van. The interior is typical of most petrol stations except for the small built on café where they head after buying another map.

There are a few other people there already, an elderly couple, some teenagers and two young men who appear to be travelling together. A short while after they start to debate their best route (with no actual idea where they are), Uhura and Scotty entre looking much calmer. They’re still lost but at least now they are all friends again.

Their fervent debate is abruptly stopped by the two young men at the next table as they get up, bring chairs over and calmly direct them to where they want to go. Apparently, the two have been listening and have grown tired of the endless, incorrect debate. The young, curly haired one reaches over and directs them with the confidence of a self-made man and it baffles Jim about how calm someone so young can be. The kid speaks in a strong Russian accent and introduces himself as Pavel and his friend as Hikaru. They are both fun and so in sync that Jim wonders for a wild second if they are related.

By the time they leave the petrol station they have two new members and even after three hours of conversation no solid idea of who they are. At one point Spock directly asks them what they have been doing in Idaho and Jim watches them stare at each other, shrug and say vaguely “Oh you know this and that,” before going silent and that’s when he begins to think that maybe this whole thing had been a bad idea. Jim feels rather than hears Bones lean over and mutter harshly about finally having found the serial killers and for one horrific moment Jim thinks about the sword in Hikaru’s bag. Jokes on them though, he muses, Uhura will beat them to death before they can make any significant move.

New serial killer hitchhikers aside they are no longer lost and Jim has really been enjoying the company of his new friends even if some of them have more than concerning homicidal tendencies. It takes a few days to get back on track and while they’re careering through the Nevada desert Jim can’t help but wonder what happens next? They will arrive in San Francisco just in time for the shuttle launch and then…what? He would have to go home, his farm could run itself for the duration of his impromptu road trip but he had other commitments, things he can’t leave for much longer.

He turns to the window, looking past Spock and out into the endless sand waste. What would Spock do? Jim supposed he would go back to doing whatever he had been doing before, research and sample collecting. For a moment Jim shudders as he has a flash of Spock standing above him, all pointed ears and green tinged skin, holding a giant syringe and stating that ‘logically this will hurt a lot but I know that humans take comfort in false facts.’

It is dark when they finally decide to just camp in the desert, the stars are dazzling and Jim's ache for them returns. It occurs to him that he has never asked Spock which one is his home, so he does. The conversation is fascinating and soon they are all huddling around the fire Hikaru made, drinking the whiskey Scotty produced from somewhere or in Pavel’s case, much to the doctor’s horror, chugging vodka from a hip flask. The night is beautiful in more ways than just the visible heavenly bodies and Jim feels like he is finally breathing after being underwater the whole of his life.

They talk well into the night and Jim learns that Scotty was an engineer before he was fired for trying to improve things too much, he learns that Spock has not been home for five years due to the need for secrecy. Uhura tells him about her family back home in Nairobi and how they had been so proud when she went to America and how she had been so lonely for such a long time. It strikes a chord with him how these people were so different, one a literal spaceman, and yet all searching for a friend. Even Pavel and Hikaru share some stories and Jim will never think about pineapples the same way again.

Eventually, he drifts off and when he wakes the morning sun is touching the horizon in the distance casting a beautiful red glow over everything. He can see the others fast asleep, all except Spock. Jim looks around and fines the Vulcan standing by the van inspecting the new drunken paint job, in his hand is Jim's camera which is filled with memories of the group. Jim wonders if he should ask the man if something is wrong but before he can he’s waking again at the doctor’s shouting. Later when McCoy has calmed down about the new graffiti which proudly proclaims the van as the _ENTERPRISE_ in bold pink bubble writing _,_ he checks his camera and finds a few photos of them sprawled out in the sand. Jim finds himself, head on the Bones’ shoulder, sandwiched between him and Scotty. Smiling he shows Bones who scoffs but has a sentimental glaze over his face.

They leave late in the day because the doctor won’t let any of them drive until at least ten hours have passed since their last drop of alcohol. Pavel is angsty about getting to Sacramento in the next two days and keeps shooting Hikaru looks that he thinks no one else sees, so when they finally arrive Jim isn’t surprised to see them rush off together with Hikaru’s sword bag. Once again, Jim speculates whether they really could be dangerous.

During their pitstop in the city, Jim has his photos printed plus some copies to give to the others. Spock pretends to find the sentiment illogical but Jim sees him carefully place them in a protected pocket in his bag and he knows Spock feels more than his eyebrows let on.

When Hikaru and Pavel return, they are covered in mud and suspicious scratches but Jim isn’t bold or stupid enough to ask what they’ve been doing so instead he books them all into a hotel for the night. They leave early morning and make it just in time for the shuttle launch. They are standing in the gated area, so close to the shuttle that Jim can taste the artificial air circulating inside it. In the distance, he sees people scuttling around like ants as they make the final preparations.

There is a countdown, so loud it almost can’t be heard and Jim feels the air, warm and soup like, fill with anticipation.

He holds his breath as the rockets ignite.

The shuttle finally launches leaving a large puff of smoke behind it like a dragon and Jim's eyes burn as he stares and his heart sings so loud he is sure Uhura can hear it next to him. Distantly, he can hear the others around him talking and cheering and all he can think is how much he envies the people hurtling towards the outer atmosphere.

As he stands there, he realises the buzzing in his head is gone and while his heart still aches for the stars, his mind is calm. He is no longer lonely and he knows he has made, admittedly bizarre, friends for life. He can feel the others press around him, staring at the shuttle as it grows smaller and smaller and finally breaks free of gravity, disappearing into the sky with its precious cargo.


End file.
